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IN SHORT; NONFICTION

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May 15, 1988, Page 007027 The New York Times Archives

THE IMPERFECT ART: Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture. By Ted Gioia. (Oxford University, $16.95.) This is an unusual jazz book for two reasons: it deals with the music not just on its own terms but in a broader cultural and esthetic context, and it was written by a musician. Ted Gioia, a young pianist who teaches jazz history and performance at Stanford University, has chosen a formidable theme for his first book: ''how peculiar jazz is in comparison with other arts'' and what makes it that way. He works some dazzling, quirky variations on this theme in seven essays, some previously published, the titles of which (''Jazz and the Primitivist Myth,'' ''What Has Jazz to Do With Aesthetics?'') indicate both the scope of his vision and the self-importance that occasionally trip him up. Much of what Mr. Gioia has to say is thoughtful and thought-provoking, but a number of his observations are debatable at best. For example, his claim that ''jazz has evolved away from the firm ground of composed music towards the terra incognita of complete improvisation,'' while it may have been true 10 or 15 years ago, ignores the increased emphasis on composition that has characterized much of the jazz created over the past decade. What is most unusual about ''The Imperfect Art'' is the apparent inner conflict it reflects: while the musician in Mr. Gioia obviously loves jazz for its spontaneity and directness, the esthetician in him seems uncomfortable with its intensity, its ''inherent tendency towards excess'' and its capacity to bore listeners - the latter being, he suggests in one perceptive essay, a dirty little secret most critics would rather not discuss.

A version of this review appears in print on May 15, 1988, on Page 7007027 of the National edition with the headline: IN SHORT; NONFICTION. Today's Paper|Subscribe